So as I made the left into my office this morning, my car was jarred quite severely. At first I thought I had hit something, but nothing was before me and the car following me was a goodly ways back, and my mirrors revealed nothing I could've collided with. The ground was freshly paved and unbroken. However, I suddenly heard a rhythmic clunking coming from my port aft trunk area. At first, I thought my trunk had been sprung by the jarring, but the trunk open warning light was off. Then, it occured to me the sound was coming from the port mechanism for the covertible top. I finished the drive another 300 feet to my office, and pulled into a parking space. I immediately ran back to survey the damage.

The top was unhurt, and the mechanism appeared in fine order. But I heard the hiss of escaping fluid or gas. I braced myself and looked under the car. There were no fluids dripping from the undercarriage, nor was there any obvious damage to the metalwork. There was, however, a long, thick piece of metal shoved through my left rear tired almost on the normal. It had demolished the region it had impacted on, and a gentle probing of it with my hand indicated it extended a goodly way into the wheel itself. At present I am trying to find somebody in town who stocks my particular tire so I can get it replaced. *sigh*.